The USTR Officially Delays the Tariff Increase Before Year’s End

December 18, 2018
As advised in our Memo of December 15th, although the President stated that there would be a 90-day delay in the increase in duty on List 3 products (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-06-20/pdf/2018-13248.pdf) from China, sources had advised that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated that unless CBP receives official notice of the delay from the United States Trade Representative (USTR), it expects to impose the additional 25 percent duty on the List 3 products effective January 1, 2019.
According to today’s Federal Register advance publications website, the USTR does have the notice scheduled for publication in tomorrow’s issue.1 As posted in its press release over the weekend, the USTR notice confirms the 90 day delay:
SUMMARY: In accordance with the direction of the President, the U.S. Trade Representative (Trade Representative) has determined to modify the action being taken in this Section 301 investigation by postponing the date on which the rate of the additional duties will increase to 25 percent for the products of China covered by the September 2018 action in this investigation. As set out in this notice, the rate of additional duty for the products covered by the September 2018 action will increase to 25 percent on March 2, 2019.
DATES: On March 2, 2019 at 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time, the rate of additional duty will increase to 25 percent with respect to products covered by the September 2018 action.